Veteran out to protect others from scammers who preyed on him

STOCKTON - Korean War Air Force veteran Jack Baker spent most of his postwar career working for the Department of Defense in computer systems management before going into real estate. Retired now at 81, he's still pretty savvy and knows when he's being scammed. Or so he thought.

STOCKTON - Korean War Air Force veteran Jack Baker spent most of his postwar career working for the Department of Defense in computer systems management before going into real estate. Retired now at 81, he's still pretty savvy and knows when he's being scammed. Or so he thought.

Baker lost almost $250 in a sophisticated fraud sweeping through Stockton and San Joaquin County that had previously prompted alerts issued by both the Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office.

Earlier this week, Baker got a phone call from a man identifying himself as "Lt. Tony Little with the traffic court." During the conversation, the caller informed Baker that he had been caught on a red-light camera and was going to be in contempt if he didn't show up to court the next day. Baker knew nothing of any citation and was immediately suspicious.

"But then he had information that actually happened to me. He knew what the streets were and where the light was and told me I had a traffic date. He proceeded to set me up for another date and then he told me to go get a Green Dot card that you can buy at Walgreens or any drugstore and pay bail," Baker said.

A Green Dot MoneyPak is a cash card that can be purchased at several retailers to make a same-day payment to a company. With the card's unique code, anyone can receive cash from it, essentially draining it without questions being asked.

The law-abiding Baker didn't want to be in contempt nor deal with going to traffic court, so he complied. After all, the caller knew Baker had traveled through the intersection of March Lane and Quail Lakes Drive.

"I very seldom travel through that intersection," Baker said. But he told the caller he remembered driving through it after an emergency vehicle with lights and siren had passed through, snarling traffic. That must have been it, he thought.

So Baker put out $249.98 for the Green Dot card, came home and called in his validation code. That gave the scammers unfettered access to his money and, poof, it was gone.

Feeling uneasy about the whole process, Baker started making his own phone calls.

"I talked to a lady in traffic court. She has no record of me to appear or do anything. I found out it was not legit. So after that, we called the Police Department," where he found out they had no record of any citation issued against him.

Living in the county and realizing a crime had been committed, he called the Sheriff's Office, and a deputy came out to interview him.

"He told us this has been going around. Some people were giving up $4,500 or twice that amount to people saying they were police officers. He said (the callers) just make a good guess of an intersection you might have been through," Baker said.

"I never fall for anything, but that had me. How would he know what intersection?" a chagrinned Baker said, adding that he stepped forward to share his story to prevent others from being scammed.

The Sheriff's Office, the Stockton Police Department and San Joaquin County Superior Court have received multiple complaints from victims in recent weeks, some of them remarkably similar to Baker's experience. All of the agencies have encouraged victims to report any fraudulent activity.

Law enforcement warned the public to be suspicious of anybody demanding an immediate payment for any reason, to understand that anybody with the 14-digit number of a Green Dot MoneyPak card has access to the account, to never give out personal information to unsolicited callers or emailers and never wire money or provide card numbers to unknown parties.

Utility companies and government agencies will never contact the public demanding immediate payment via MoneyPak cards. For more information on consumer fraud protection, visit oag.ca.gov/consumer.

In Stockton, contact the Police Department at (209) 937-8377, the Investigations Unit at (209) 937-8323 or Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600. Callers can remain anonymous. Citizens can also text information from their cellphones to CRIMES (274637) and type the keyword TIPSPD and then their tip or go to the Stockton Police Department's Facebook page and click "Submit A Tip." If you have any information that might lead to an arrest, contact Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers pays cash rewards up to $10,000.

In the county's unincorporated areas, contact the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office at 468-4400.

To verify if you have a ticket, call Superior Court at (209) 468-2966.

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/goldeenblog and on Twitter @JoeGoldeen.